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About Me

I am a daughter of the King, wife to an amazing man, mother of four beautiful children and “grandma” to a house full of pets. I love all things purple and orange, Walmart, diet pepsi, The Black Eyed Peas and the person who created M&Ms. Amen.

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Saturday, May 30, 2009

Ian is at the Youth Banquet tonight and the children and I are hanging out in the living room together. Sam is playing with his DS and Julie & Jordan are watching Imagination Movers. We are feeling so lazy and just enjoying being together.

This week was another busy one. So much to do and not enough time to get everything done. Meetings and interruptions...ugh...they're endless. I have an A/R meeting every Friday morning at 9am and the stress I feel while preparing for it and being in it is unbelievable. I felt so incredibly relieved when it was over. I know I'm just a temp but I really want to do a good job. Who knows where this could lead - maybe a permanent position or even just a great reference out of it. I've made some great new friends. We laugh until the tears run down our faces at least once a day. God really put me in a great spot.

Last night was Family Night and instead of Ian driving over to pick up our pizza, he and I walked over with the girls while Sam stayed behind with his friends. We popped into Second Cup for strawberry smoothies, grabbed the pizza and made it home just before the sky opened up and poured rain. Peter Pan was the feature for the evening, and true to form, I fell asleep during it. I don't think I've ever seen that movie in its entirety. I was in bed by 9:20pm and woke up at 8:30am. Sweet.

Today we all headed over to my Mom's so that Ian could repair the tree house in her backyard. Ian built it 13 years ago for our nephew and it needed some repairs badly. The children helped him outside while I visited with my mom and sister inside.

Tomorrow will consist of church, laundry and school projects. The weekends go by entirely too quickly, don't they?

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Yesterday I was going through my collection calls and spoke with someone who just could not get my name right. It went something like this:

Him: What your name?

Me: Kate

Him: Cake?

Me: No, Kate

Him: Cake?

Me. NO. Kate. K-a-t-e

Him: Ohh ok. Ok so anyway, Cake...

Sigh.

One of my last calls of the day was a really, really hard one. Obviously I cannot - and will not - go into details here, but I had to call a client and give him news that he wasn't going to like. I was given a directive to do so from the manager so I didn't have a choice and I was putting it off for a week... This guy was angry right off the bat when I identified myself and it just escalated from there. I have taken seminars and courses on how to deal with irate customers, difficult people and a few customer service courses as well. Nothing could diffuse this guy, so I just let him yell and swear. I couldn't get a word in edgewise with him. I completely understood - and agreed with - his position but there wasn't really anything I could do. I don't think I've ever felt so lousy about my line of work as I did yesterday. And no matter what, I couldn't shake it.

Today the manager told me we would hold to our original agreement. Now I have to call this guy back to tell him that we will keep things as they are, and I just know he's going to get upset again and ask why I bothered calling to begin with.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Yesterday Ian released Linda, the wild bird that Sam, Julie and the neighbourhood children collectively kidnapped rescued and begged me to let them keep. Ian headed out to the ravine and found a tree with a hollowed out spot in the trunk, made a comfy little nest and left Linda there. The children were so heartbroken.

Long story short - mainly because the details of this little negotiation have become somewhat disputed - we bought this for the children...

I know what you're thinking. We spoil our children.

I agree.

We could have used this experience as a key learning about the circle of life/can't always get what you want/whatever you want to put in here.

And I agree.

We already have a cat, a hamster and two guinea pigs.

Still... I caved.

Her name is Magic and she's a Budgie. Apparently she can be trained to fly only to certain spots and return to her cage, as well as say a few words.

Friday, May 22, 2009

Last week I was asked to help call some customers to advise them of any changes to their delivery days and times. Doing so caused me to fall behind, but it was high priority to the company and another woman was pulled from her duties to do the same. All in all, we spent 4 days out of 5 calling customers. We thought we were done and this week - a short week, no less - we set out to get ourselves caught up.

Then...Wednesday arrived.

Along comes the salesman to ask me to call the newly re-routed re-routes. I was told that the customers "might get a little upset".

That, my friends, was the understatement of the century. Irate would be a little closer.

My third call went from calm and friendly to off-the-charts irate in a split second. Never in my entire career have I ever been spoken to this way. I am not a wimp and I can take (and dish) a lot if needed, but this was unlike anything I've ever encountered. My eyes were burning and my cheeks were so flushed. It was all I could do not to slam the phone down in this guy's ear. The language - oh sweet mercy. That man's mama should wash his filthy mouth out.

I was emotionally spent by the time I got home and sat in my beloved recliner with a black cloud hovering over my head. I watched the American Idol finale (AWESOME) and headed up to bed.

About 11:30 I was woken up by Jordan coughing. I knew Ian was still downstairs with her, so I stayed in bed. Then I heard what sounded like choking and hurried downstairs to find Ian sitting on the floor with Jordan, patting her back. She seemed to be gasping for air and was crying so hard, coughing and choking. I ran for the phone and he called 911.

I sat with her on my lap while we waited for them to arrive. Then I realized I was...ahem...hardly dressed appropriately. I will spare you the details of me and my lingerie. I asked Ian to grab my robe for me before the paramedics came, thinking he'd bring me my fuzzy pink one. No. He brought the one that went with my nightie.

Sigh.

Within minutes my living room was filled with firemen and paramedics, and me with my hardly-appropriate-for-company nightgown. As soon as Jordan coughed, they all nodded to one another and said "Croup!"

They gave her a mask that forced ice cold mist into her nose and suggested I get dressed and pack a bag for her for the hospital. I called my mother while I dressed to let her know what was going on, because let's face it, mom's make everything seem better.

The ride to the hospital was uneventful. I sat in the back with Jordan and held the mask to her face while talking and joking with one of the medics. He was a really charming guy and I knew his entire life story by the time we got to the hospital.

One of the nurses on duty is the sister of a friend of mine, so she bumped our chart so we'd be seen by a doctor sooner. I was so grateful. A nurse gave her a treatment of Ventolin which Jordan hated. I had to hold her arms and head just so we could give it to her. My heart just broke. Finally she went limp against me and just took it. She was also given a dose of Prednisone. She curled up in my arms and fell asleep. I sat next to her and watched her. All night.

The morning brought another Ventolin mask and we were discharged just before 8am. I took her to the Tim Horton's kiosk just outside of Emergency and bought her a couple of timbits to eat while I enjoyed a Steeped Tea. We both slept all morning once we got home.

I was worried about how she would do last night but she was perfectly fine. The children had appointments to get their vaccinations today, and I called to see if Dr L could see Jordan too, just to check her out. He said all of our children are perfect and perfectly healthy.

In other news...

My placement will go for "three, maybe four more weeks". I guess this position is definitely going to Kingston. I'm trusting that God has everything worked out for what comes next. I'm going to enjoy the time I have left with my coworkers. They're so great. Today I went out for lunch with *A* and she said "everyone is so much closer since you arrived". I think that's the best compliment I've received from that place, and there's been quite a few.

Sam, Jules and the neighbourhood kids found a bird tonight, and they all begged me to keep the bird in our house.

!!!

I refused to allow them to bring the bird inside so Sam got out his old hamster cage and they made a bed for Linda (yes they named it). She is currently in her newly appointed condo, in the backyard, underneath my patio table, covered by the bbq cover. Ian had a long circle-of-life chat with Sam and Linda will be released into the ravine tomorrow.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

I spent all last night in the ER with Jordan and while I'll post about it eventually, I'm just too tired and freaked out to do it now. She has croup and is fine for now. Please keep her in your prayers as we don't know what to expect tonight.

In the meantime...

80 Things You Didn't Know About Me Until You Read This:

Here we go...

1, What Color Is Your Toothbrush?Yellow

2, Name One Person That Made You Smile Today?Jordan

3, What Were You Doing At 8 Am This Morning?Waiting for Ian to arrive to take Jordan and me home from the hospital

4, What Were You Doing 45 Minutes Ago?Watching the finale of Desperate Housewives that I'd taped from Sunday night

5, What Is Your Favorite Candy ?M&Ms

6.Have you ever been to a strip club?Yep, a few times

7, What Is The Last Thing You Said Aloud?"Yes" to Ian

8, What Is The Best Ice Cream Flavour?Cookies 'n Creme, Bryers

9, What Was The Last Thing You Had To Drink?Passion Fruit punch

10, What Is The Longest You Have Gone Without Sleeping?26 hours

11, Have You Ever Made A Promise You Swore To Keep?Yes, and I did

12, Have You Bought Any New Clothing Items This Week?No

13, The Last Sporting Event You Watched?I don't watch sporting events

14, What Is Your Favorite Flavor Of Popcorn?Plain

15, Who Is The Last Person You Sent A Message To On Facebook?Amanda

16, Ever Go Camping?Yes

17, Take vitamins daily?No. They are placebos in my opinion

18, Do You Go To Church Every Sunday?Yes

19, Do You Have A Tan?Nope. I'll be as white in September as I am in May. I don't have time or patience for tanning

20, Do You Like Chinese Food Over Pizza?Yes!

21, Do You Drink Your Soda With A Straw?Yes because there are cooties on the can

22, Who was the last person you talked to on MSN?Either Jen or Amanda

23, What Are You Doing Tomorrow?Working

24, Where Is Your Dad?Heaven

25, Look To Your Left, What Do You See?Jordan's crib

26, What Color Is Your Watch?I don't wear one

27, What Do You Think Of When You Hear Australia?Kangaroos

28, What Is Your Birthstone?Garnet

29, Do You Go In At A Fast Food Place Or Just Hit The Drive Thru?Drive Thru

30, What Is Your Favorite Number?7

31, Who's The Last Person You Talked To On The Phone?My Mom

32, Any Plans Today?Catching up on my sleep

34, Biggest Annoyance In Your Life Right Now?That things aren't as I want them to be, and that my eyes aren't as focused on God's will for my life as they should be

35, Last Song Listened to?The theme song for Disney's Imagination Movers

36, Can You Say The Alphabet Backwards?Should the question be "why would I want to?"

37, Do You Have A Maid Service Clean Your House?No

38, Favorite Pair Of Shoes/Boots You Wear All The Time?No

39, Are You Jealous Of Anyone?No

40, Is Anyone Jealous Of You?maybe

41. Do you love anyone?Yes

42, Do Any Of Your Friends have ChildrenYes

43, What Do You Usually Do During The Day?Working

44, Do You Hate Anyone That You Know Right Now?No

45, Do You Use The Word 'hello' Daily?Yes

48, Have You Ever Been To Six Flags?No

49.Where did you get your worst scar from?Surgery

51, Last Cd You Listened To?I don't listen to cds. I'm a radio kind of gal

53, Last Time You Cried?Last night

54, Last Meal?Sandwich

58, Have You Ever Lost Someone?Yes

59, Have You Ever Slept Until 1pm?Yes but it's been awhile. Now if I sleep longer than 9am I think I've wasted half my day

61, List Five People You Can Tell Pretty Much Anything To:This list would have been different a few weeks ago.. but I'll go with Ian, Mom, Jen G, Linda and...and.... ok I only have 4.

62, List Three Favorite Colors/shades:PurpleOrangeYellow

63, Have you ever laughed until you cried?Yes - pretty much every day with my coworker. What a blessing she is

64, Went Behind Your Parents Back?Way back in the day and not that often

65, Who Posted This Before You?I stole it from Brittni from Facebook ( I love Facebook )

66, Support Gay Marriage?No.

67, Lowering The Drinking Age?I'd like to see it raised to 21

** hmm...wonder which one I'll get flamed for most - #66 or #67?? **

69, Who are the best huggers that you know of?Ian

70, Do You Believe In Love At First Sight?Absolutely

71, Is There Something you want to tell someone?Yes, but some things are better left unsaid

74, How Many Kids Do You Want To Have?I have 3, but I've always been open to as many as God gives me

75, Do You Want To Change Your Name?No, I'm definitely a "Kate"

76, Last Time You Saw Your Father?23 years ago

77, What Time Did You Wake Up Today?I didn't! I was up all night and went to sleep at 9am until 1. Ok, so it was 1pm. HEY! I slept until 1pm! Guess it wasn't so long ago after all...

78, What Were You Doing At Midnight Last Night?Cuddling my beautiful Jordan in the ER

79, What Is Your Favorite Thing In Your Room?My bed

80.Where is your best friend right now?In the backyard, BBQing my burger

There you have it. Crucial information about me! Feel free to put this on your blog. If you do, leave me a comment and link so I can pop by and learn more about you :-)

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can;and wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; Taking, as He did, this sinful worldas it is, not as I would have it; Trusting that He will make all things rightif I surrender to His Will;That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with HimForever in the next.Amen.

Monday, May 18, 2009

I have loved being at home with my family this weekend and as usual, its passing by much too quickly. Julie was thrilled to find out that I didn't have to go to work today.

I was pretty thrilled to be able to stay home as well :-)

Saturday Ian took Sam and our nephew out to see Wolverine at the movies and Jules and I began our UNO Marathon Tournament. Score as of Sunday am: Kate 174 / Jules 172.

Yesterday we went to church then headed up north to my in laws for a visit and dinner. Ian and I left the children with his parents and we headed into town to check things out. We hit the local Dairy Queen (Reece's Pieces Blizzard = yum!) and popped into their Zellers.

The BIGGEST news of the weekend is that Jordan is WALKING! And she's brilliant at it, of course. She has been taking 2 or 3 small steps lately but yesterday she just took off and I counted 16 steps in a row.

And I didn't cry.

Can you believe that? My little baby is growing up so fast and I'm enjoying her milestones instead of crying about them.

Oh yes friends, there's hope for me yet.

She resembles Frankenstein a little bit when she walks because she does it with her arms stretched out in front of her. It's so cute to see her little face so excited.

Just as we were heading out the door to drive to Ian's parents' house, I happened to look at Sam's socks. They were absolutely filthy, probably because he's insisted on wearing the same pair all week. I don't know if they are his favourites or something, but I asked him to change them for the sake of his grandparents. He grabbed a freshly laundered pair and said he'd put them on in the car.

While we were visiting, I thanked him for changing his socks. He grinned mischievously at me and said "I never said I'd change them, Mom. I said I'd put them on. And I did... over top of my other ones!"

For the love of pete. He did say it that way too.

Little boys. How can you not just love them to bits??

I can't talk too much today because its a beautiful day and we're heading out to the park with the children.

So, I'll close with some pics of my route to work. Oh you know you wanted to see them, so here they are!

Cruising through Cow Country...

No traffic...

A very quick and pleasant trip...

Along the way I do encounter some weirdness such as this mannequin that sits on someone's front porch. I don't know why its there or what purpose its serving, but it's creepy with a capital C.

This is a mansion that is being built in the midst of a lot of teeny tiny houses. Honestly... such excess. Who needs a house this big???

And my workspace...

This really is a great job. It's challenging and hard, and certainly the fastest paced job I've ever had, but the support and respect I get is really appreciated.

We had a hail storm recently and apparently I'm the last blogger to post her pics! I couldn't remember ever seeing hail before, so we all headed out to the front porch to check it out.

Friday, May 15, 2009

Sorry for my absence this last week or so. I'm in a bit of a slump these days but I'm hanging on. Lots of things going on at once that I'm trying to work through.

I'm still working. They really like me there and they are full of praise and compliments for me and the work I've done so far. I've just wrapped up week 4 and going strong. I'm busting my butt trying to make my mark (so to speak) so that if something permanent becomes available they will consider offering it to me. I'm mentally exhausted by the time I get home every night. It's a challenging position that's for sure.

Girls Club is now over for the summer. We had a Mother/Daughter BBQ last night and it was so much fun. Jules and I want to continue to do something special each Thursday night so we stay connected. I want to take her on a Mother/Daughter camping trip. I don't know how to set up a tent or start a fire or protect us from wild animals.... but we'll have a terrific time together anyway.

I had my hair done last Saturday (glorious!) and the girls at Girls Club noticed right away. They said my hair looked so nice now that it was all one colour. Ha ha.. I guess my roots were way over due... Love their honesty!

Have you seen this commercial? It makes me laugh every time I see it.

LOST wrapped up this week with a fairly good season finale. And Grey's! Oh sweet mercy - what a cliff hanger! Don't die on us George!!

Next week is the finals for Dancing With The Stars. Sigh. I will need a new show! Good thing The Bachelorette starts up on Monday.

What's that? I wasn't ever going to watch this show again? Yes... I did say something about that, didn't I? Well, it's like this... The Bachelorette...see, she's Canadian and I really should watch, just so I can, you know, support a fellow Canadian.

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

I'm overwhelmed by this job and the expectations and responsibilities that come with it. It's not that I can't do it, its just that I'm overwhelmed by it.

The workload...the meetings...trying to learn and absorb and adapt and impress...the creepy cookie baking perv who turns every conversation into something sexual...

I am overwhelmed.

I'm overwhelmed by my emotions. I'm up and down, here and there. I laugh and smile, but sadness is underneath it all. I am not where I want to be. Maybe I'm where God needs me to be, but I'm not where I want to be.

And it sucks.

This is the part where I should cheerfully say "I'm grateful for a job!"